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Question of the day

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Illinois

Besides this site, what’s your favorite blog? It doesn’t even have to be political. Explain why.

Also, Illinois political bloggers should use this thread to promote their own sites. Paul is revamping our blog list and could use some help finding more links.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:39 am

Comments

For Illinois politics, Archpundit.

Overall, Fark.com (Ok, it’s more of an aggregator than a blog; but, still) and talkingpointsmemo.com.

Comment by the Other Anonymous Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:45 am
Boing Boing or Wonkette.

Comment by Kiyoshi Martinez Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:47 am
Political: www.politico.com

Non-political: www.profootballtalk.com

Politico has a great national politics blog that encompasses all sides - including third party opinions - and is an online donnybrook.

Profootballtalk is a great way for a football junky like myself to get news, rumors and sarcasm about the NFL and, at time, college football. Since there really is no offseason in the NFL, it’s a great site to keep tabs on everything.

Comment by Team Sleep Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:52 am
www.fark.com

Comment by Wumpus Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:52 am
www.andrewsullivan.com

Probably the most popular political blog in da universe. Concentrates on national political and social issues. Author is a libertarian and represents what a significant part of the Republican party USED to be.

Moreover, Sullivan also makes a good living doing it. Whowouldathunkit!

Comment by irishpirate Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:53 am
Politicalguy.com…great place for politics and sports.

Comment by Curt Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:59 am
zulkey.com
hilarious

Comment by punkyqb Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:02 am
realclearpolitics.com is the best collection of op/ed pieces and polling data on national issues and candidates and it’s based out of Chicago.

Comment by York Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:13 am
My Favorite political blog has to be the Proviso Probe by Carl Nyberg.Thanks to the Probe,Proviso corruption has been kept on check and even has decreased after the exposure from Nyberg’s Probe and his loyal readership.

Comment by deepthroat Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:19 am
Well I think I got my comment nuked so I’ll just choose two as opposed to five or so.

blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/ for coverage of national politics

davidmeade.com because the videos there are interesting and funny and made in Chicago.

Comment by Levois Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:20 am
Eric Zorn was the reason that I got into blogging and his posts still make me think and spur lively comments.

Archpunditremains the prince of Illinois politico-bloggers

And
Mark Evanier’s “news from me” is my favorite source for Mark Evanier.

And my personal jabber-factory remains located at:
http://austinmayor.blogspot.com/

– SCAM

Comment by so-called "Austin Mayor" Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:24 am
Rich, nothing compares to this site. Why would you go anywhere else?

Comment by He makes Ryan look like a saint Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:24 am
“Springfield Rewind” is a fabulous pictoral history of this town. Outstanding!!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by i d Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:25 am
My favorite poltical web site is Taegan Goddard’s politicalwire.com (Not sure it qualifies as a blog). He also has a companion site political insider. There are links to all many of the prominent national political blogs.

Comment by Captain America Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:29 am
If you trade stocks or are interested in the markets, try www.kirkreport.com

Comment by Apple a day Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:43 am
politicalwire.com is a must-read.

www.pollster.com has some interesting stuff.

www.notesfromskeeterville.blogspot.com is my new blog. It will have a definite Chicago focus, although I will probably cover some other matters of ongoing interest. I am trying to provide more substance in this blog, as opposed to just quick notes.

Comment by Skeeter Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:56 am
There are other blogs?

Comment by Ghost Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:58 am
http://www.dailyhowler.com

Check out his take on Jeff Gerth, co-author of a new “biography” about Hillary Clinton. Covers media coverage of national politics and education issues.

Comment by Smitty Irving Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 11:02 am
Besides Rich I have to read Political Wire/Insider daily.

Comment by Highland Online Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 11:06 am
Chicagoist.com has some pretty hilarious writing, covering everything from culture and sports to politics.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 11:09 am
Hands down, perezhilton.com

Comment by The 'Broken Heart' of Rogers Park Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 11:18 am
I’m also a big fan of politicalwire.com and, to a lesser extent, The Fix (the content’s good, but there’s way too much junk in comments).

Also the 13th Floor from Governing (http://governing.typepad.com/) As luck would have it, the 13th Floor has a post about someone doing a study of state blogs. Yipee!

Comment by Dan Vock Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 11:27 am
Wow So many choices so little. I think I’ll just stick with CaptFax and Paul the Apprentice.
P.S. Paul might want to clean up some the media links too for us old timers.

Did the Governor really go to Miami over the weekend?

Comment by Reddbyrd Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 11:36 am
I’m such a dork, the NYTimes has a “forum” section, and my favorite is the book section - sort of a blog/book club. But, it’s not as good as it used to be. Capitolfax is without peer.

Comment by babs Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 11:46 am
The Washington Note, Hotline On Call Blog, New Donkey, alismangate.blogspot.com (blog about current Iraqi politics with some inside scoops), juancole.com, IraqPundit…

Comment by PoliticalJunkie Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 11:54 am
2 of them:

Politics: playgroundpolitics.blogspot.com It’s a Wisconsin political site, and to be honest, I wish there was an Illinois equivalent.

Sports: deadspin.com Each moment deadspin updates then becomes the #1 moment of my day, unfortunately it will also be the reason I get fired some day since I spend and hour a day reading the site. Finally, the main writer there is a a U of I grad, so it has Illinois ties.

Comment by Bakersfield Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 12:21 pm
http://www.obtusity.com/….a pop culture blog with music reviews and insight

Comment by Anon Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 12:27 pm
http://obtusity.blogspot.com/

or rather this website, sorry

Comment by Anon Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 12:28 pm
ArchPundit and this blog are among my most-oft checked blogs. S-CAM, Ellen of the Tenth, and a few others are close seconds. (Can’t tell which way I lean, can you?)

Arch helped set up Illinois Reason and now a few of us (mainly me so far…) are blogging on it.

Comment by Rob_N Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 12:43 pm
www.johnfritchey.blogspot.com - honest, smart… refreshing.

Comment by Anonymiss Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 1:02 pm
Dailyamericannews.com
It’s the website for The Daily American, a 6 day a week paper for West Frankfort. The blogs are a hoot - typical Mayberry stuff. Right now some of them have their panties in a bunch over a fence. It’s really refreshing to read and definitely sets you back a few years, if not a few decades

Comment by Little Egypt Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 1:05 pm
When I get tired of it all, comicscurmudgeon.com/

Snarky comments about lame newspaper comic strips that are beyond hilarious. Has me reading Gil Thorp, Apartment 3G, Judge Parker, Dick Tracy, Mary Worth again just to pick up how insane most comic strips are today. Gil Thorp is so bad it is not even published by the Tribune anymore, but they still syndicate out! By far the most popular to poke fun at by those blog readers. Reader responses are equally cute and funny!

If blogger Josh came to Illinois and concentrated his efforts on the Springfield follies, Rich Miller would fall to second. Whatever you do Rich, keep him out in the Baltimore area!

Beats reading about politics at times!

Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 1:35 pm
I would suggest the best Galesburg blog, thepoliticalwasteland.com for all your news on the State’s Attorney scandal and the national news item of Galesburg High School withholding diplomas from students. We mainly try to cover local issues, but it has become a popular site.

Also, check out qcexaminer.wordpress.com for a great Quad Cities area blog.

Comment by Robbie Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 1:36 pm
I love reading Bill Simmons (AKA The Sports Guy) on ESPN.com. Interesting views on sports and pop culture and very funny.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 1:50 pm
thespoof.com has some pretty creative and funny stuff. A few others that I don’t discuss in a public forum.

Rich, I was wondering if you could put a time stamp on new threads? Sometimes I wonder how long they may have been up for comment. Especially when I leave and come back a few hours later.

Comment by Papa Legba Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 2:14 pm
Peoria pundit

Comment by Democrat Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 2:18 pm
I’m very partial to my own site, of course, but I love Pressthink , which has the most indepth look at new media I can find. For film reference, obviously, the Internet Movie Database in invaluable, and for film commentary, Senses of Cinema

Comment by Ferdy Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 3:08 pm
if you want to keep up on the political happenings in iowa i suggest www.iowapolitics.com it has a roundup of all the important blogs.

Comment by randomguy Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 3:25 pm
Cap Fax has it all.

Comment by Just a Citizen Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 4:44 pm
One of my favorite Illinois blogs is URBANAGORA http://www.urbanagora.com/

It is a collection of bloggers who have some connection with Urbana or the University of Illinois.

Today they lit up Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson, and deservedly so:
http://www.urbanagora.com/2007/06/halvorsons-hypocrisy.html

Sometimes Urbanagora has big picture and high science coverage, and it also features solid federal, state, and local commentary. Some of the posts give you a sense of college life in Champaign-Urbana.

The bloggers span the political spectrum. tet is a rabid libertarian, billy joe mills is a moderate/conservative republican, augur is a moderate democrat, and ruiz and pierce are liberals.

Comment by Blagojevich's Nightmare Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 5:21 pm
I agree entirely with the previous author regarding the Urbanagora (www.urbanagora.com) blog. They are a group of the University of Illinois’ best political minds and their posts are broad in scope. They seem to get regular comments on every post, and sometimes as many as 50.

Most blogs that I read tend to debate along partisan lines, but these guys try to get at the heart of what it means to be a conservative or a liberal or an independent. They transcend petty partisan politics and enter the realm of the philosophy behind the big issues they weigh on our society. They are worth a read.

Comment by Univ. of Illinois Grad Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 5:37 pm
That Halvorson post was based on a false premise. Namely, that if the utilities couldn’t stop the previous ten-year rate freeze they couldn’t stop a new one.

The utilities supported the previous rate freeze legislation. They didn’t sue to stop it. This time, they oppose the freeze idea because they’ve already signed contracts for much higher energy costs.

Based on that post, I’m not impressed with the claims that they “transcend petty partisan politics.”: They referred to Halvorson as a “dumbass,” while relying on a completely false premise, which is not exactly transcending pettiness. But to each his own I suppose.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 5:44 pm
Like anywhere, urbanagora has it’s share of partisan hackery, but it was probably the most partisan Democrat on the blog who attacked Halvorson, which somewhat redeems UofI student’s argument that it isn’t petty partisan politics. The democrat was attacking a democrat - albeit hastily.

Augur was a little sloppy on this, which isn’t usually the case with him, but around year 7 or 8 of the ban, I think if the public utilities thought they could enjoin the ban, they would have. I agree with him that a law could be fashioned that freezes rates that ComEd would not succeed in enjoining.

Comment by UIprawf Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 5:58 pm
New blogsite up for McLean County news; political and otherwise; www.mcleancountypundit.com

Comment by McLean County Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 6:04 pm
Actually, Mr. Miller, it appears that you are the one who is wrong about Urbanagora proposing a false premise. You, by your own admission, took a quick glance at the data while the author looks to have studied Halvorson’s finances extensively through the Sunshine database.

Also, the “transcending petty partisan politics” trait does still apply because the author of that post is in fact a Democrat criticizing his own party, which is by definition transcending partisan politics.

You’ve now made a few baseless accusations against the author of that post, which ironically seems to violate your own policy of deleting “insults and ‘rumors.’”

Comment by UI Alum Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 6:53 pm
Why would they wanted to have enjoined the ban they put in place? They were making good bucks and knew that if they laid low their parent corp profits would slow when deregulated. Legal action to lift the freeze then would have invited legislative retaliation and regulatory nightmares. The premise is all wrong and so is that post. No excuses allowed.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 6:55 pm
Also I should add that when u call the Majority Leader a “dumbass” then u really ought to make sure that you’re not the dumbass.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 6:58 pm
Posting from my Treo. Please excuse typos.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 7:00 pm
I stand by my post. Your entire premise was false and anyone who would use such a flimsy “reason” as an excuse to engage in such extreme pettiness - partisan or not - should withdraw the post. If you don’t like it or can’t accept the heat, then don’t try to pimp yourself here.

She took a total of about ten grand in 14 long years from ALL utilities by your own reckoning. I found 2K from ComEd. Hardly a queen’s ransom, as was suggested by the piece.

And the stuff about the freeze was just plain false. There is no defense for that post. give it up.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 7:07 pm
Again, I feel that you are breaking your own “no insult” policy with this little tirade, but do as you please. I’m not quite sure why you are so defensive of Ms. Halvorson, does this merry band of corrupt legislators really deserve to be called anything aside from “dumbasses”? I hope that any friendship you have with her is not compromising your ability to impartially report on her more suspicious activities…That would seem to violate the duty and responsibility you have to your loyal readers.

By the way, it appears that you are also not holding yourself to your profanity policy, which reads, “Profanity is absolutely not acceptable in any form.” Yet you wrote of the Urbanagora author, “u really ought to make sure that you’re not the dumbass.” Wow Richy, that doesn’t sound like hypocrisy at all. But just so that we’re all clear, the word “dumbass” is now acceptable on your esteemed blog?

Comment by UI Alum Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 7:27 pm
mr. miller, you might want to respond to this augur character on the urbanagora blog itself, he has a minor retort for you.

Comment by UIUC Student Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 7:29 pm
back on topic, I have a list at my blog Musing Minds. I’m in Lake County.

Comment by kimsch Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 8:06 pm
I left out one of the best. This should be required reading. How often do you get to see two of the sharpest minds of our generation going head to head?

http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

Comment by Skeeter Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 8:17 pm
Mr. Miller:

I thought it was a reasonable assumption that if the prior rate freeze could withstand efforts at injunctive relief, that future rate freezes could be crafted that would also withstand injunctive relief.

ComEd wields considerable authority in the Illinois General Assembly. Last year’s windfall profits are evidence that some regulation is called for. I have never been impressed with Senator Halvorson’s intellect or her sense of public duty, and still think her “how could I sleep at night” opining was insincere.

You are correct that I posted without enough research or data, I saw her comments and I let my previous dealings with Sen. Halvorson and a bad assumption carry me too far. I hope you’ll continue to check out http://www.urbanagora.com I think you’ll find that most of our posts aren’t this hastily researched or negatively charged.

I’m going to take your advice and remove the post. I hope you’ll check back on our progress. We have some great writers.

Keep up the great work.

Comment by Augur Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:50 pm
Not a huge deal, I’m pretty sure the 10K was in 05-06. I use the sunshine database from the reform project b/c it’s much easier to use. Significantly larger sums than the 10K come into play when you consider the donations to President Jones and ISDF (donations to the caucus she’s leading).

Anyway, thanks for the history lesson. I appreciate your advice on handling this post. I took it. I hope you’ll continue to check our progress at http://www.urbanagora.com/ - I do think that generally you’ll like what you see.

Comment by Augur Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:15 pm
Cap. Fax for Illinois issues and Crooks and Liars for the Bush/Cheney corruption. Makes me grind my teeth, but it also confirms what we’re all thinking. There are no surprises in politics anymore for us skeptics. We’re proven right every day.

Comment by Disgusted Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:30 pm
Fritchey’s blog is refreshing because it’s rare for politicos to criticize their own party’s leader. I also enjoy Dan Johnson-Weinberger’s blog www.djwinfo.blogspot.com

Comment by respectful Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:46 pm
Augur… Good choice.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jun 5, 07 @ 6:39 am
I regularly read:

So-called Austin Mayor
ILLINOIZE
Archpundit
Prairie State Blue
Wurfwhile

and I have to admit that I read Perez Hilton religiously.

I think my blog is pretty good when I update it regularly!

Comment by Bridget Dooley Tuesday, Jun 5, 07 @ 8:23 am